Not one, but three chariots, have been requisitioned by my red master to accompany his hellish army into battle. The chariots are heavy ironclad constructs drawn by furious beasts from the darkest plains of the chaos wasteland. The chariot is driven by a brutish horse master and behind him a dark champion stands, wielding an insidious poleaxe. With such a large and also complex model, the challenge is to get a consistent look across the different model parts, but also to focus on the parts that stand out, i.e. the parts that are seen at first glance from across the battlefield, then do a simpler paintjob on other less visible parts. Below, I will go through how I painted some of the more interesting bits.
Beasts
What proposed to be an exiting paint job started with, sigh… more horses. After recently having done a bunch of knights, I was kind of fed up with horses. Nevertheless, as the horses are front and center model parts they will stand out, I saddled up (apologies for the pun kind master) and put some effort into them. I focused my attention on the red armour, using the same recipe as with the knights, i.e. going from Memphiston Red, shaded with Carroburg Crimson, to Evil Sunz Scarlet, then highlighted with Fire Dragon bright mixed with Evil Sunz. Skin is black washed with Agrax Earthshade, followed by grey highlights mostly by some gentle drybrushing using a large drybrush. Manes and tails are highlighted using black gradually toned with Vallejo Dark Sea Blue with tints of white.
Note: I find black is quite tricky to do well. I try to avoid doing straight out black but instead decide on a tone of color like blue or green to tint it with. So when I highlight, I do it by gradually mixing black and white with that color instead of mixing pure black and white. I believe this is a trick that is widely practiced in many other areas of art as well. For instance, in the Matrix movies, the actors wear a lot of black costumes. But if you look closely, black is never just black, it is always subtly toned with either green, blue or red.
Wheels
The model is basecoated black, so the wheels are given a heavy drybrush with Leadbealcher metalic, most intensely on the outer rim and less so on the oakes, leaving the inner part of the wheel much darker. The rusty look is achieved by doing spots of Mournfang Brown, then washed with Vallejo Dark Rust wash. Do not wash the entire part, instead apply the wash only to areas where rust will most naturally occur, around bolts and in recesses. Streaks of Vallejo Steel (a bright metallic similar to GW’s Runefang Steel) are added in a criss-cross pattern to give the effect of recent wear and scratches. Finally, some edge highlighting again with Vallejo Steel, to give the impression of light falling on the wheel from above. I do this by turning on my desktop spotlight and simply look for where light catches the different parts.
For more inspiration there a many tutorials out there on different weathering techniques, just google “weathering techniques”.
Basing
The chariots are based on quite large oval bases and such a large base needs something more than just a simple texture effect. Oh – I remember when bases where square and no more than 50 by 50 millimeters at the most! How things have changed. Mostly for the better though, as I admittedly prefer the look of round bases (there I said it!). Anyways, pieces of thin cork sheet about 2-3 mm thick, are glued on in layers to create some rocky plateaus. The cork is painted black (black primer) and then Stirland Mud is added. Be careful when doing the black undercoat and make sure all cracks in the cork are completely covered. At least two layers are needed.
The bases where done using an airbrush. An earthy red tone (I think I used Vallejo Gory Red) was applied in the deepest parts of the rocky formations to give a sligthly earthier tone in the final look. Also, blood will surely ooze from the ground when my red master unleashes his savage army unto our world. Then gradually, I worked up the greys with Vallejo Base Grey (dashes of Grey Blue) and finally a drybrush with Terminatus Stone and Pallid Wych Flesh.
Riders
On the final model, it is mostly the upper half of the riders that are visible, so I concentrated on their weapons and cloaks. The cloaks are primed black then airbrushed with tinted mixes of Vallejo Dark Sea Blue. Final edge highlighting by brush agin with Dark Sea Blue but strongly tinted with white. Nuln oil was applied in the deepest recesses.
The weapons are based with Leadbealcher and Hashut Copper, then washed with Nuln Oil. For an interesting effect on the blade edges I messed about with steaks of dark and bright metallic tones, which I think adds a worn but also vibrant effect to the blade edges. I think I will doing this on future models as well.
Oh – how I hope my master will be pleased with my efforts. If I am to play a role in bringing death and destruction upon us all, then at least I know death will ride in style.
Master! Your chariots await thee…
Slowlypainted 